The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish individuals decided to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful High Street businesses because the lawbreakers are causing harm the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they say.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

Investigators found that a Kurdish criminal operation was running convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and aimed to discover more about how it operated and who was involved.

Armed with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to be employed, looking to acquire and manage a convenience store from which to distribute illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to uncover how simple it is for someone in these conditions to establish and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we discovered, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, helping to mislead the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly film one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could erase official penalties of up to £60k imposed on those using illegal laborers.

"Personally wanted to play a role in uncovering these illegal practices [...] to say that they do not characterize Kurdish people," states one reporter, a former refugee applicant himself. The reporter entered the country illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his life was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized migration are high in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized working "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he believes obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was worried the publication could be exploited by the extreme right.

He states this notably struck him when he realized that radical right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Placards and banners could be observed at the gathering, reading "we want our nation back".

Both journalists have both been monitoring social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin community and explain it has caused intense outrage for some. One social media message they observed stated: "In what way can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

One more urged their families in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also read claims that they were spies for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish heritage and extremely worried about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status state they are escaping political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, struggled for many years. He states he had to live on under £20 a week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which includes food, according to government guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this is not adequate to maintain a respectable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from employment, he feels numerous are vulnerable to being manipulated and are effectively "forced to work in the black market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office commented: "We are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would generate an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take a long time to be processed with approximately a 33% taking over one year, according to government figures from the late March this current year.

Saman explains being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to achieve, but he explained to us he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he encountered employed in illegal mini-marts during his investigation seemed "disoriented", especially those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals spent their entire funds to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] say you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]